4 Simple Money Saving Rules That Successful Women Swear By

You don’t have to be a genius to realise that an ever-increasing amount of people are struggling with saving money, with a recent survey revealing that 69 percent of adults have less than $1000 of savings in the bank. The survey found that low levels of savings existed among people of all income levels, with nearly half of those who earned between $100,000 and $149,000 reporting savings of less than $1000.

Financial experts blame a “spendy culture”, impulse buying habits and lack of financial literacy for the savings drought the is prevalent among millennials in particular. But take a look at the savings habits of any successful woman and you’ll notice one thing – they keeps it simple. Saving isn’t always about developing a series of complicated systems and methods, but more often relies on following a few simple money rules and sticking to your guns.

Set yourself goals

When it comes to saving money, goals are key. After all, how can you know what actions to take if you don’t have any clear outcomes in mind? Take some time to sit yourself down and think long and hard about how much money you need to save to do the things that you want to do. Maybe you want to save a house deposit or perhaps you dream of taking a year off work to travel around the world. Write your goals down and then start to form a plan of how to get there. You will always be more motivated to save if you know exactly what you are saving for.

Follow your budget

Just because there is a 50 percent off sale on, it doesn’t mean you can afford to buy. Successful women know the importance of a strict budget and take time to revise their budget regularly. Following a budget doesn’t always mean going without, it just means that you set aside money for each expense and factor your savings into each paycheck.

Take care of your debts as quickly as you can

Any savings you make while still in debt will never actually be yours. If you truly want to get ahead then paying off your debt should become a priority for you. Successful women know that being free of debt is the key to financial freedom and with debt hanging over your head, you will never truly be able to achieve your financial goals. A student loan or mortgage that you pay regularly is one thing, but extensive credit card or higher purchase debt is only costing you money.

While it may seem to make more sense to try to pay off everything at once, a recent study found that focusing on one debt at a time was actually the most effective way to deal with things. Being able to see entire debts erased proved to be motivating for people and spurred them on to keep paying off more and more.

Automate your savings

So now that you’re committed to your savings goals and have taken care of your debts, it’s time to automate your savings. You wont find successful women fiddling around with their payments from week to week, but instead they set up automatic payments so that all of their money goes into the right accounts on payday automatically. Once the money has left your spending account, the temptation to spend it is far less and you’ll get a sense of satisfaction seeing your savings account begin to grow.